Training primary care physicians improves the management of depression

The purpose of this pretest-posttest study was to evaluate effects of a tra ining program designed to improve primary care physicians' (PCPs) ability t o recognize mental health problems (MHP) and Co diagnose and manage depress ion according to clinical guidelines. The primary care settings were in the northern part of The Netherlands. There were eight intensive, hands-on tra ining sessions of 2.5 hours, each of which three were targeting depression (7.5 hours). in the pretraining phase we screened 1778 consecutive patients of 17 PCPs with the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and inte rviewed a stratified sample of 518 patients about presence of current depre ssion with the Primary Health Cave version of the Composite International D iagnostic Interview (CIDI-PHC). PCPs registered patient's mental health (st atus, severity, diagnosis) and treatment prescribed. Then we trained the PC Ps. In the posttraining phase, we screened a new group of 1724 consecutive patients of the same PCPs and a new stratified sample of 498 patients went through the same interview and rating procedures as patients in the pretrai ning phase, Knowledge about depression was assessed pre- and posttraining. PCPs' knowledge of depression improved significantly. Recognition of MHP an d accuracy of depression diagnosis improved, but was not statistically sign ificant. The proportion of patients receiving treatment according to the cl inical guidelines increased significantly. It was observed that training PC Ps improves the management of depression. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.